Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

22 reviews

harrimyers's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

currently placed at 4.25 but definitely could move to 4.5. a very good, concise overview of both the american death industry, but also how the western world views death in general. the formatting was brilliant and this book has taught me so much about the death industry that i either hadn’t even stopped to consider or hadn’t known at all. it was a very interesting look at how the death industry in america has directly warped people’s views of death and their relationships with their own mortality. doughty’s personal experiences are fascinating, if slightly… concerning at times. her stories from the crematorium were the most engaging part of this book and how the author links these to her past childhood experiences with death and to philosophical and cultural views of death was highly impressive. at times, the tone felt a little too… casual? but i suppose that part of this comes down to doughty’s mission to demistify death and part because this book was made to be engaging to read. however, with this in mind, there was a few instances where this casual tone did do a disservice to her argument, especially in regards to the size of the corpses and her brief dip into her run of the bdsm scene in hawaii. overall, this book was definitely thought provoking and has definitely demistifyed a lot about death for me (coming from someone who often already considers death to be an important thing to be conscious about) as well as making me stop and think very carefully about what i want to happen to me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Child death, and Dementia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Fatphobia

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation

stinky_goblin's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia and Body shaming

jmapes's review against another edition

Disgusting characterization of deceased patients. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Ableism

cadence99's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

What I liked:
•the discussion of death practices in various cultures 
•the authors personal musings on how best to manage the image and processing of death

What I didn’t like:
•chapters feel a bit disjointed in their themes
•the repeated use of race as a descriptor for ONLY non-white people when it is irrelevant to the narrative of the story being told
•pretty gross anti-fat comments, primarily in one particular section where she talks about her coworker declaring that despite the medical examiners determination to the contrary, the person MUST have died of a heart attack from being so fat and “This is why you can’t be fat!”- in addition to describing in great detail how fat bodies smell worse, but then dismissing the coworkers comments as “just fact” (even though he is literally ignoring fact by assuming the mans cause of death is not the one determined by the examiners professional assessment)
• in the same scene as above, repeatedly bringing up how her coworkers continually mistakenly say the person is Mexican, despite him being Salvadoran 
•irrelevant added story where a coworker says they should fire bomb the city of San Francisco because it is a “hell pit”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Car accident, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infertility, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Ableism, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicide, Terminal illness, Abortion, Blood, Dementia, Racism, Addiction, and Child death

charlottedow's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Not for the faint of heart (or stomach) but an incredible exploration of the death industry in America and the concept of death positivity. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, and Suicide

Moderate: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

raekit's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.25

Doughty is detailed and direct. If you don’t want to the details of bodies decomposing or burning, take a pass on this one. First the good: I liked knowing more about what exactly happens to our bodies after we die. I also like her assertion that was have moved too far from death and that this is not good for us as humans. Now the bad: there is one chapter where a chunk of the focus is on a very fat person who is recently deceased and it does that fat phobic thing of “just stating facts” but the reality is they are tied to a human. It was really the only part where I felt the people she cared for were written about disrespectfully but it was bad. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Child death

spookily's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Blood, Child death, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Dementia, Drug use, Cancer, Classism, Violence, War, and Addiction

Minor: Sexism, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Car accident, and Excrement

amygower's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

asiaasiaja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Car accident, Medical content, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Grief, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Excrement, Classism, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Vomit, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Sexism, and Dementia

Minor: Fatphobia, Cursing, Colonisation, Body shaming, Xenophobia, and Cancer

specificwonderland's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.75

Liked the writing and narration. The topics stayed somewhat surface level. The end turned into a textbook or philosophical exercise. It was like the first 3/4 was saying, "Ewwww isn't this wild?" and the last 1/4 was about the future of the funeral industry and how we do/should/could view mortality. It was ok. I also added a few trigger warnings to larger bodies. I thought the scene felt a little (more accurately "moderately") judgey/predatory. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Medical content, Death, and Body shaming